Finally a post where I can brag about saving money (see alterations, dress and invitations posts . I am getting a really awesome deal, partially b/c my wedding is off-season in the states, and partially b/c the photographer isn't super well known yet and wants to build his portfolio to include more destination weddings.

I am paying a flat fee of $3000 ($1000 for his travel, which I booked, and $2000 for his photog. services).

For this fee I am getting:

- 3 hours of photography for the rehearsal/rehearsal dinner - All day the day of the wedding (no time limit) - Trash the dress/day after the wedding photos at the ruins (his suggestion)

FI's Aunt and Uncle are professional photographers in Chicago. For our wedding present, they are flying to Mexico and taking all of our wedding pictures! We really lucked out on this!! Before their offer, I had looked into photogs in Mexico and was planning on spending about $4,500.

I didn't have many options, so we had to use the resort photographer. We paid $555.00 for a couple of pics before the ceremony, the ceremony, and 1/2 hour after (yes this truly sucked). Included was the dvd of 50 pictures, and two printed 5'7 printed copies from the dvd. He was in way to much of hurry, and didn't focus on the pictures I asked for.

The TTD shoot we hired another resort photographer. We got 2 hours of her time 112 pics on the dvd, and 30 printed 5'7 copies from the dvd, this cost us $600.00.

Tropical pictures has a monopoly on the resorts for photography, an I really think they kind of sucked. My photgrapher the day after was good but she really didn't know what she was doing and we just winged it.

This includes -Engagement shoot -Up to 13 hours the day of the wedding -2nd shooter/assistant -Password-protected online gallery for viewing your images-Hi-res photos written to CD-R (Allows up to 8x10 prints; larger files upon request)-The right to reproduce all images- and if time allows she is throwing in a TTD session!

I didn't have many options, so we had to use the resort photographer. We paid $555.00 for a couple of pics before the ceremony, the ceremony, and 1/2 hour after (yes this truly sucked). Included was the dvd of 50 pictures, and two printed 5'7 printed copies from the dvd. He was in way to much of hurry, and didn't focus on the pictures I asked for.

The TTD shoot we hired another resort photographer. We got 2 hours of her time 112 pics on the dvd, and 30 printed 5'7 copies from the dvd, this cost us $600.00.

Tropical pictures has a monopoly on the resorts for photography, an I really think they kind of sucked. My photgrapher the day after was good but she really didn't know what she was doing and we just winged it.

You got sooo lucky with your TTD photographer!

~ Jaime & Martin ~"Rain or Swine! 2-0-0-9"

We had 24 people attend our wedding in Las Caletas, Mexico on May 24th, 2009!

We all stayed at The Marriott in P.V., and Honeymooned at The Royal Plantation in Ochos Rios, Jamaica!

I need to pick a photographer soon and I am having a hard time deciding. There are a couple I really like that are more than I planned on spending, but part of me wants to just go for it...I don't get a do-over on my wedding pictures. I also want a TTD session and I don't know how much extra that is going to add.

We paid $1500 for 5 hours. With that we got all our pics on disc (about 850), an album with 300 4x6s, as well as 5 8x12s and 10 5x7s of our choosing.

Did you use a resort photographer or a local photographer? Your price seems to low, but I think your pictures are wonderful.

Kelly, I think you got some amazing pictures even though you were not happy with your photographer. Your TTD pictures are awesome, but I think the ones from your wedding day are great, too.

I absolutely love pictures & having great pictures is really important to me. But, I'm trying not to spend over $5000 on the wedding, including the after parties, travel & everything. So I think we will be hiring the hotel photographer. It's $600 for 100 5x7 pictures & the negatives. I'd rather have a CD of the pictures, because I play with pictures on my computer all the time.

For any photographers reading this, please don't think I'm saying photography isn't worth the money. If there was anything I could cut back on in my budget to allow more for pictures, I'd do it. But I think I have everything budgeted as low as possible. I'm planning on finding some people who have used the hotel photographer to see what they thought. I'm also going to look into finding an inexpensive, local photographer.